Reference no: EM133351500

Assignment:

"Miss Brill." by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)

1. What specific details can you infer about Miss Brill's character (and, perhaps, about her life) from this statement: "She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round her" (par.3)? How do Miss Brill's observations of the people around her give us insight into her own character? Why do you suppose she doesn't interact with any of the people she observes?

2. In paragraph 9, Miss Brill realizes that the scene she observes is "exactly like a play" and that "even she had a part and came every Sunday." What part does Miss Brill play? Is she a stock character in this play, or is she a three-dimensional character? Does she play a lead role or a supporting role?

3. What happens in paragraphs 11 - 16 to break Miss Brill's mood? Why is the scene she observes so upsetting to her?

4. At the end of the story, has Miss Brill changed as a result of what she has overheard, or is she the same person as she was at the beginning? Do you think she will return to the park the following Sunday?

5. Critic Gillian Boddy, in Katherine Mansfield: The Woman, The Writer, offers the following analysis of Mansfield's fiction:

The story evolves through the characters' minds. The external narrator is almost eliminated. As so often in her work, the reader is dropped into the story and simply confronted by a particular situation. There is no preliminary establishing and identification of time and place. The reader is immediately involved; it is assumed that he or she has any necessary prerequisite knowledge and is, in a sense, part of the story too.

Do you see this absence of conventional exposition as a problem in "Miss Brill"? Do you think the story would be more effective if Mansfield had supplied more preliminary information about setting and character? Or do you believe that what Moddy calls Mansfield's "Concentration on a moment or episode" is a satisfactory substitute for the missing exposition, effectively shifting interest from "what happens" to "why it happens"?

6. Read "Miss Brill" from paragraph 8 to the end of the story. Explain in which you analyze how Mansfield characterizes "Miss Brill" through her relationships to others. Refer to elements such as symbolism, point of view, and epiphany.